Delhi  : The National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD), NOIDA, a premier national level institution engaged in promotion of entrepreneurship and development of small businesses in the country through different interventions of training, research and consultancy  under the auspices of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of India, and Intuit, a leading provider of business and financial solutions for small and medium businesses, has  announced that they have joined together to roll out a four-hour Module on Financial Literacy/Management for small businesses in the country.

Aimed at providing small business owners with critical financial management skills to run their operations in an increasingly competitive environment, the interactive, discussion-based Modules incorporate both strategic and tactical guidance, supported by group exercises based on real business situations that leverage the insight of small business participants.

The Modules are comprised of three stages of learning: How to Start a Business; How to Manage a Business; and, How to Grow a Business, and are expected to empower the participants with content and skills to help them improve their financial outcomes. As a precursor to introducing the Module across India to small businesses in the coming months, the curriculum will first be introduced during the forthcoming Training of Trainers(TOT) organized by NIESBUD at Nainital from May 21st to June 6th for Senior Faculty of its Partner Institutions. The TOT is expected to train40 to 45 trainers from across the country including a few small business owners themselves.

Arun Kumar Jha, Director General, NIESBUD elaborated, “The desirability of timely, adequate and cheap financial resources to a small enterprise cannot be over-emphasized. However, a generally forgotten aspect of this crucial element is the paramount necessity to manage financial resources optimally. I hope that this joint initiative with Intuit would go a long way in dawning upon the owners of small businesses the importance of managing their financial resources optimally and equipping them with the requisite skills for the purpose”.

Nikhil Arora, Managing Director of Intuit India, said “Intuit is committed to empowering small business owners to take control of their financial lives and jumpstart their future success, and we are proud to collaborate with key partners like NIESBUD to fill a gap in available training for small businesses. Our earlier work with NIESBUD and the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises helped us understand the barriers to technology adoption facing small businesses, and training, particularly in the area of technology and financial management, is an area of opportunity for the entrepreneurship ecosystem. We are honored to be a part of this training with NIESBUD.”

The three-phase curriculum was tested and validated by entrepreneurs in the development stages. One of these small business owners who provided valuable input, Akshat Pandey, from Alpha Partners, a law firm, added, “As an entrepreneur, I was busy chasing ideas and expanding my practice and could not give time to financial management. Like me, so many busy start-up professionals often feel they must simply outsource financial management and planning, however we too must own the outcome of our financial health. An interactive and practical training of financial management fundamentals like this one will certainly help me run my practice more efficiently from the very start.”